George Karl impressed with Pistons' Michael Curry

SALT LAKE CITY -- When Michael Curry played for George Karl in Milwaukee, he knew Curry would eventually become an NBA front-office executive or a head coach.

"My feeling was, I thought he would have the choice," said Karl, who now coaches the Denver Nuggets. "And I thought it would be smarter to take the other choice, and go into management. When you have the choice, you should probably go for management."

Curry did that for two seasons as a member of the league's front office. But it was during that time when Curry realized that his heart was elsewhere.

"Further down the line, I'll finish my career doing some type of front-office work," Curry said. "I just know the two years I was in the front-office, I craved being out on the court; helping players get better and being a part of the game out on the court. At this stage of my career, coaching is where my passion is."

Karl has been impressed with the coaching job Curry has done, especially considering all the changes he has had to deal with since being hired this past summer.

"I think he's balanced this team back in a very positive direction," Karl said. "Michael doesn't like losing. I can tell you that. In my years of coaching him, he doesn't like losing and he wasn't very fun to be around when we lost. I think that passion is what the Detroit Pistons are going to build on, people like that."

And when the Pistons struggled early on following the Chauncey Billups-Allen Iverson trade on Nov. 3, Curry remained steadfast in his belief that the team's fortunes would eventually improve. After Saturday's loss to Utah, Detroit is 22-13 since acquiring Iverson.

"As I said from the beginning with Mike, he will not shy away from the responsibility of what he has to do," said Joe Dumars, Detroit's president of basketball operations. "I have the utmost confidence in him that he's tough enough and strong enough to deal with whatever is thrown at him."

Weird night for Billups
When you spend six-plus years with one team like Chauncey Billups did with the Pistons, some habits are hard to break.

Billups had a few awkward moments like that Friday when his new team, Denver, lost to the Pistons, 93-90.

"There were a couple times in the third quarter when I kept looking up at the clock, we (Denver) were actually up and I kept for some reason thinking we were down because I kept looking at the Pistons' score," Billups said. "It was just kind of weird."

Curry's call
After Arron Afflalo made a pair of free throws that put Detroit ahead, 89-86, with 9.1 seconds to play against Denver, Curry elected to intentionally foul Nene, one of Denver's worst free throw shooters.

"I believe in fouling, when you're up three (late in the game)," Curry said. "I actually wanted to foul Billups, too, before he got too far up court. But he's a tough one to foul. He's very crafty. He can be at halfcourt and you try and foul him, he can get his shot up. But one of the things I believe in, is fouling, put you on the free-throw line."